March for the Alternative, March 26th 2011

The cuts being perpetrated by this government threaten millions of people with the risk of unemployment and millions more with the loss of vital services, such as schools, health care, fire brigade and libraries. Furthermore they threaten the entire country with the risk of a double dip recession which will destroy the chance of alternative employment. Bankers will take our homes away.

If the Trades Union Congress demo on March 26th has over a million people in attendance, the political climate in this country will be fundamentally changed. Those who support cuts will have far less credibility. Those who oppose them could be greatly emboldened.

If you and your colleagues participate in this huge show of strength, it will give you a sense of pride in the enormous power of the trades unions. It will change you forever. We are the only economic power significant enough to challenge the rule of the bankers. Don't let us leave a world of poverty, unemployment and pollution for our children to inherit. Be part of the fight for a civilised future.

Join the TUC demonstration. Bring your friends and family.

As far as I know places on official trade union coaches are rapidly filling up. I would still encourage you to get yourself to this event. Assemble Victoria Embankment at 11 am for the march to Hyde Park.

Vote to Make a Difference on 5th May

Political decisions can and will change our lives. We have seen our pay cut in real terms, our jobs extinguished, our pension changed with further radical changes just announced by the Government, our services reduced or externalised (TUPE).

There are approximately 21,000 local authority workers, most of whom will be eligible to vote, along with many other public service workers, e.g. Police, Fire, NHS, Teachers, BBC, Environment Agencies, Armed forces, Charity Groups etc. If we all vote this May we can and will make a difference.

Many countries still do not have political systems that even give their citizens the right to vote. While they continue to fight for this right, we should consider it our responsibility to vote.

Find out who represents you and discuss your concerns. Many of us have the chance to make a difference this May so please take this opportunity, where the right to vote is a privilege won after hundreds of years and many battles, to use your vote in May - as your choice can make a difference to the society we live in.

Broadland District Council
http://www.broadland.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/councillorslist.aspx?view=party

Breckland Council
http://democracy.breckland.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=PARTY&VW=LIST&PIC=0

Great Yarmouth Borough Council
http://www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/council-democracy/councillors-democracy/who-are-my-councillors?s=party

King's Lynn & West Norfolk Council
http://www.west-norfolk.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=21545

North Norfolk District & Parish Council
http://www.northnorfolk.org/council/5008.asp

Norwich City Council
http://www.norwich.gov.uk/site_files/pages/City_Council__Councillors_democracy_and_elections__Councillors.html

South Norfolk District & Parish Council
http://www.south-norfolk.gov.uk/democracy/4785.asp

Many local elections are taking place for Councillors in Norfolk on 5th May 2011: please take the opportunity to vote.

Colin MacPhail is a senior steward within the Norfolk County Branch of UNISON.

The New UN Women’s Agency

This Tuesday was International Women’s Day. Join me in calling on the Government to answer the question they failed to answer last week when they published their review of the UK’s international aid programme - how much will they commit to spending on the new UN women’s agency?

This new UN agency has the potential to make a real difference to the lives of women in both the developed and the developing world but it needs resources.

The Government say they are putting women and girls at the heart of their development work. Sign up and ask the Government to put their money where their mouth is and show the world that the UK is still a leader for women.

The Labour Government played a key role in establishing 'UN Women'. The new Government must continue that support. Empowering women is not only right in principle but essential for fighting poverty and achieving all of the Millennium Development Goals, such as reducing the number of women who die in childbirth, and increasing the number of girls who go to school.

It is women in developing countries who are best placed to fight for maternal health care, and for their daughters to go to school. UN Women must help them in that fight. Support UN Women by signing up to ask the Tory-led Government for a real commitment to back up women throughout the world

Decisions are being made on this now and women the world over need the UK to play its part. The women of the world shouldn’t have to wait any longer for this Government to make up its mind.

Best,

Adapted from an email sent to the branch on behalf of Harriet Harman,
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.

LSE Students Occupy Buildings Against the University’s Ties To the Libyan Regime

Students at the London School of Economics have succeeded in changing policy at their educational establishment through a militant approach. Following the announcement below, they began an occupation of LSE buildings designed to force their establishment to change its position with regard to Libya.

"At 7pm on February 22nd, we began an occupation of the Senior Common Room in the Old Building (Houghton St.) against the LSE regarding their association with the Libyan regime. In light of recent events the LSE administration announced that they would no longer be accepting the money ...from the Gaddafi family. The school has already accepted £300,000 and was scheduled to receive and additional £1.2 million. We as students of the LSE are demanding:

a) A public statement by the LSE administration denouncing the recent gross violations of human rights by the Gaddafi regime and Saif Gaddafi’s violent threats against the protesters in Libya

b) A formal commitment by the LSE refraining from cooperating with the Libyan regime and any other dictatorial regimes that are known to be implicated in gross violations of human rights.

c) Rejecting the rest of the yearly installments that are being received from the £1.5 Million donation of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF) and work towards creating a scholarship fund for underprivileged Libyan students using the £300k that LSE has already accepted and not spent yet.

d) Revoking Saif Gaddafi's LSE alumni status, as his public statement on Sunday 20th of February and the various reports issued by International Human Rights Organisations clearly demonstrate that he is implicated in the killing of innocent civilians as well as other human rights violations. His association with the LSE community and particularly its student body is a disgrace that is not tolerated by the LSE staff, students and alumni.

e) Publicly committing that no grants from officials of such oppressive regimes will be accepted in the future by establishing a set of standards and a process of democratic decision-making with student representation that determines whether or not the School should accept money coming from controversial donors.

Failing to do these would not only betray the LSE's ethical values, it would also tarnish the School's reputation in a region whose people are currently fighting to reclaim their freedom from corrupt dictatorships--and are winning the fight so far.

Following the publication of these demands we will occupy a space on LSE campus."

Following the occupation, the LSE Director made the following update on the School's official website:

'The Director will recommend to the LSE Council on 1 March that the School set aside £300,000 – equivalent to the entire sum received from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation - for purposes agreed with the wider School community. In particular, the School is looking into establishing a scholarship fund for Libyan students.'

UNISON Norfolk County Branch is preparing an official statement of support to the student effort which will be sent in the next few days.